Promotion!?

To celebrate 1 year of adblocking on iOS, Crystal will be free for the weekend!

If you haven't tried Crystal yet or want to recommend it to family, friends, Uber drivers or Tinder dates, be sure to do so before the end of Monday to take advantage of the price drop. Grab it at crystalapp.co/download

New Features?

Onboarding - When you first launch you'll see some new onboarding slides which'll guide you through the setup process and explain new features in future updates.

Whitelisting - Want to support a particular website? You can add it to the whitelist and Crystal will no longer block ads on that site. There's also a Safari Action Extension so you can whitelist sites without leaving your browser. Neat huh?

Acceptable Ads - You can now choose to block all ads or allow minimal advertising that meets the Acceptable Ads criteria to help support the sites you love. Want more details? Check out this post I wrote detailing Acceptable Ads here last year.

Bug Fixes & Improvments

I've rewrote the sync engine to be more reliable and perform better.

The sync engine is made with modularity in mind, allowing for future features to be added a lot quicker.

Fixed an issue where a small number of devices on iOS 10 are unable to download an updated blocklist.

The UI within the app has been refined so it should look a lot nicer.

I've removed the "Open Settings" shortcut, as this functionality has been removed from iOS 10.

Is this the case? Short answer, No. Long answer, lets jump back to 2011...

History

Every iOS device has whats called a UDID (Unique Device Identifier), which is a static string of characters, unique to your device, and cannot be changed. With the UDID, your device could be recognised between different applications, allowing advertisers & analytic services that developers use to build a profile of you to serve you more personalised adverts based on your behaviour and the apps you use.

In iOS 5, access to the UDID was deprecated. This means while it was still available, Apple was giving advanced warning that this would eventually be revoked.

When iOS 6 got announced, it came with a new API specifically for advertisers to use and give more control to the end-users. This was called IDFA (Identifier for Advertisers). This worked in a similar way to UDID, only instead of having a static ID per device, users could opt to reset the IDFA at any time or "Limit Ad Tracking" where a developer has to agree that their app honours this setting while submitting an app.

Changes in iOS 10

So in iOS 10, the functionality of "Limit Ad Tracking" is changing. Previously, turning it on would randomise your IDFA to a new string and set a flag that you have requested to limit tracking. As this new string was static until you have requested to reset it or disable "Limit Ad Tracking", it could still be used to track you, but Apple believed that developers & advertisers would follow its rules and ignore it for behavioural purposes. I doubt many app developers checked the code of their advertisers of choice to see if they conformed to "Limit Ad Tracking" when including their SDK, and I have no doubts that many abused this or simply not understood it.

In iOS 10, when you enable "Limit Ad Tracking", it now returns a string of zeroes. So for the estimated 15-20% of people who enable this feature, they will all have the same IDFA instead of unique ones. This makes the IDFA pretty much useless when "Limit Ad Tracking" is on, which is a bonus, as this is what users will expect when they enable the feature. These users will still be served ads, but its more likely they will not be targeted to them based on their behaviour.

If you want to test the IDFA functionality, I made an example project for iOS which you can test in the iOS 9 & 10 simulators to test the differences, and the Apple API documents for this are hosted here.

Conclusion

I personally think this is a great change for iOS, although personally I would prefer this option to be presented to the user during on boarding, enabled by default, or no longer hidden under several menu layers. My main concern however from the editorial was this quote in particular:

The issues I see with this change is that it breaks legitimate advertising models, forces companies to use more intrusive tracking methods and doesn’t necessarily improve user privacy.

— Mark Chapell

For advertisers, they should notice minimal differences assuming that they are honouring the "Limit Ad Tracking" preference. This quote seems to suggest that some(most?) advertisers are not honouring this option and their business models rely on 100% behavioural tracking. Losing the 15-20% of people who opt-out breaks their advertising model forcing them they try more "intrusive" methods to profile you. This further proves that the advertising industry cannot be trusted to self-regulate itself when it comes to honouring user privacy and is one of the many catalysts that turn people to adblock tools, such as Crystal, for their privacy needs.

Do consumers have a right to opt out of advertising? – it should be painfully obvious by now that consumers are already opting out of advertising. Instead of throwing stones at groups and companies trying to address the underlying consumer need, perhaps Chapell and the ad tech lobby could work on giving consumers an easier and more robust way to express their preferences.

What is Crystal?

Crystal is an adblocker that I originally released alongside iOS 9 for iPhone & iPad. It had a strong launch and reached #1 on the App Store in 32 countries worldwide! As of today, it is now it is available on Samsung Android devices running the latest Samsung Internet Browser included in the Marshmallow (v6.0) update.

In the latest version of Samsung Internet Browser, Samsung has built in a Content Blocker extension API which allows 3rd party apps, such as Crystal, to provide a filterlist to the browser to block content online. Such as adverts & user tracking.

By using Crystal to block obtrusive advertising, pages will load faster and consume less data.

Once you try browsing with Crystal, you won't want to switch back!

What features does Crystal for Samsung Internet have?

Crystal is able to load many different community supported filter lists for blocking adverts in different international regions, block privacy intrusive trackers, malware domains and social networking annoyances.

Also Crystal includes the ability to support sites that conform to the Acceptable Ads criteria by allowing non-intrusive advertising. For people who want to block all ads, there is a “one tap” button to disable the feature to block all known advertising online.

Finally, Crystal updates its filter lists seamlessly in the background ensuring that it is always up-to-date to give you the most optimal adblocking experience.

Any update on Crystal for iOS?

Yes! I am working hard for the new 2.0 update which is due out soon and has some great new features that have been requested by the community. Watch this space!

]]>Why are people using ad blockers on mobile?marketingopinionDean MurphyFri, 25 Sep 2015 07:00:00 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/9/22/why-are-people-using-content-blockers50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:5600df8ee4b0125504e0a6e9I released Crystal last Wednesday, a content blocker for iOS 9 that blocks advertising and user tracking in mobile Safari. Since then, It's had an amazing response and hit the top of the App Store charts in 30 countries within a short amount of time. Other content blockers have also stormed the charts worldwide proving there is a huge demand at the moment for these apps.

But why? Well, I held a short survey to people signed up to Crystal's launch newsletter and visitors of the Crystal website, that received over 800 replies. (raw results here)

Why Do you want to block Mobile Ads?

A Loss of Focus

This question was to pick the most important reason why you would like to block mobile advertising.

Visual clutter and site load times make up 64% of the poll. They compliment each other perfectly as the more advertising you add to a web page, the more cluttered it becomes, the slower it takes to load and ultimately it'll cause more frustration to the reader.

I've seen a lot of websites cram so many different ad networks together, which often don't compliment each other and take a strong focus away from the content of the site. Here is a great example from pcmag.com. Any point they tried to make with their article was discredited before the reader has got past the headline.

Privacy concerns makes up a strong 22%. Honouring browser options such as Do Not Track may be beneficial to rebuild the trust between a subset of users and the sites they visit.

Given the option, how would you like to support your favourite ad-supported sites?

*Allow ads that meet a quality criteria.

Not All Readers Want to Block Ads

When surveying people who wanted to install an adblocker, this was the most surprising result to me.

71% of people who are blocking ads are not actually against advertising in general and are more than happy to allow advertising that meets an acceptable criteria or whitelist a site by site basis. My first planned update to Crystal plans to cater for this majority by introducing a feature to allow Acceptable Ads and a user-managed whitelist. You can read more about that here.

22% however are willing to pay money to support sites, either to remove advertising or to receive extra content. If you're a publisher, would it be worth losing advert clicks/impressions for ~20% of your readers in exchange for $1-5 a month per user?

6.5% of the voters don't want to support their favourite sites with adviews or money.

]]>On Acceptable Ads.AppsopinionDean MurphyFri, 25 Sep 2015 01:42:42 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/9/25/on-acceptable-ads50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:560492d1e4b0a2d546f08922Update: You can also listen to a discussion I had about Crystal on the Rampant Mumblings podcast here (Ep 42&43).

There has been a lot of confusion and mis-reporting going on today regarding Crystal allowing advertising. I'm hoping this post will clarify the information.

What Will Be Changing?

In my first update (6-10 weeks time?) there will be two new features. A user managed whitelist, where you the user can specify a list of domains that you would like to support and anoption to enable/disable Acceptable Ads on the websites you visit.

You are totally free to use all/any/none of these features as you see fit.

What Are Acceptable Ads?

Acceptable Ads is an initiative, supported by 3 of my favourite websites (Reddit, DuckDuckGo, Stack Exchange), that encourages and promotes the use of better advertising on the web. They have 5 rules for publishers and advertisers to stick to:

Acceptable Ads are not annoying.

Acceptable Ads do not disrupt or distort the page content we're trying to read.

Acceptable Ads are transparent with us about being an ad.

Acceptable Ads are effective without shouting at us.

Acceptable Ads are appropriate to the site that we are on.

Why do you need to partner with Eyeo?

Honestly? As a single developer, it would be impossible for me to manage the workload required to make sure publishers conform to any strict standard. Eyeo however has the experience & infrastructure in place, the data of acceptable ads that meet a criteria, the support staff to assist with reviews (all done through open forum) and the necessary business relationships within the industry.

Why are you forcing this on everyone?

Firstly - This will not be forced on anyone. It will be an entirely optional feature that will be described and presented clearly within the app before it is activated and that you can turn on/off at will. It will not be silently/secretly pushed out to everyone. I will to make sure that everyone is fully aware of how this feature works before it's enabled.Secondly - by blocking all advertising with brute-force, it doesn't promote a healthy mobile web that is sustainable and allows publishers to make a living from the free content they provide. By including the option for a user-managed whitelist and Acceptable Ads, I'm hoping to empower users to be able to support the mobile web in any way they see fit.Thirdly - In the long term, I'm hoping this convinces advertising agencies and publishers to reassess the kind of advertising they are using and bring them inline to a either the Acceptable Ads (or similar) criteria.

But nobody wants to see ads online...

I ran a short survey during the launch period of Crystal, the full results are coming in a post in a few hours, but one of the statistics from it is over 50% of people are happy to support sites by allowing ads that meet an acceptable criteria, around 20% favour a user-managed whitelist. These are the users this update will be catered for. Don't like the features? - No problem, you can choose not to enable them, they will be entirely optional.

Are companies paying you to be whitelisted?

No, but I do get a fee from Eyeo which will allow me to implement, maintain & support the features of Crystal in the long term.

Can companies pay to be on the whitelist?

I have no involvement with the whitelist directly - however Around 90% of websites on the Eyeo Acceptable Ads whitelist do not pay a fee to be included, only the absolute largest companies pay for inclusion, assuming they meet the criteria of course. In turn, this allows for better ads that meets the criteria to be displayed. What they are paying for is the service of whitelisting and the additional value it creates for them, but what they're doing is allowing it to be free for the majority and thereby encouraging better adverts to spread.

Here is a copy/paste from Eyeo's FAQ which describes in more detail their business model in regards to whitelisting:

What is the process for being whitelisted?

To be whitelisted, a website or advertiser must apply. At that point we collaborate with them to bring their ads in line with the criteria of our Acceptable Ads initiative. After that, we send the proposed ads to our 27,000-plus community for 7 – 10 days for an open discussion. If members of the community raise legitimate objections about proposed ads, we go back to the drawing board with the website or advertiser. If nothing comes up we whitelist the ads after the time period discussed above. All whitelisted sites are available here.

Why do some companies pay to be whitelisted and others do not?

Whitelisting is free for all small websites and blogs. However, managing this list requires significant effort on our side and this task cannot be completely taken over by volunteers as it happens with common filter lists. That’s why we are being paid by some larger properties that serve nonintrusive advertisements that want to participate in the Acceptable Ads initiative.

Can companies pay to be on the whitelist?

Absolutely not. Anyone and everyone can apply to be whitelisted. Whether they are or not depends solely on the content of their advertisements, i.e., whether they conform to our unambiguous Acceptable Ads criteria. However, after approval, some larger properties that serve nonintrusive advertisements pay.

I encourage you, if you have any comments or concerns or would like to discuss this, feel free to drop me an email.

]]>Crystal TrailerAppsDean MurphyMon, 07 Sep 2015 15:39:25 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/9/7/crystal-trailer50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:55edaed1e4b03d3d6e78f017I've spent most of today having a break from developing to make this little trailer for Crystal. It's very simple, showing the speed difference to fully load 3 webpages sequentially.

Enjoy!

]]>Crystal - FAQ'sAppsDean MurphySun, 06 Sep 2015 07:10:01 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/9/4/crystal-faqs50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:55e8e33ce4b0617f0b1c75adI've had a lot of questions about Crystal and Content Blocking in general over the past few weeks. Here's a little post to clear up some info.

What does Crystal do?

Crystal is a content blocker - It primarily blocks 3rd party adverts and tracking scripts, stuff that runs in the background when you visit sites. It removes irritations such as full screen interstitials with tiny close buttons, popups/popunders, autoplay video, unwanted redirects to the App Store... All the annoyances you have with the modern day web.

Why would I want Crystal?

A side effect of blocking adverts and tracking is performance. After profiling 10 popular news sites with & without Crystal, I found the pages fully loaded 3.9x times faster on average while using 53% less data. It's tricky to measure, but it's safe to say this has a very positive impact on battery life too!

Does it work on every website?

The majority of sites, yes! As I am unable to fully test the whole web, I have built in two great complimentary features. A "Report Site" feature that makes it easy to let me know when a site is showing adverts or not functioning correctly, and a Smart Sync, which allows me to update the blocklist remotely.

What about 3rd Party Apps?

Content blockers only work in Safrai, and any apps that use the new Safari View Controller, such as Twitterrific.

Wait, don't websites rely on ad income?! Why are you doing this?

A question I've asked myself on and off the past couple months. Truth is, the mobile web has become a polluted, and this is the first real opportunity to clear it up, for better or worse. There is a lot more going on behind the scenes when you load up websites, this great post by Rob Leathern profiles The New York Post and has some amazing findings. Unfortunately, this practice is quite common within the industry.

What languages will it support?

When is the release date?

Whats your pricing model?

To ensure I can support the app in the long term (I have some great features planned!), and to cover any cloud hosting costs, it will be a premium app. No price is decided yet.

Can I help beta test and/or be notified when its released?

I've reached the maximum amount of testers I can currently hold until Test Flight is ready for iOS 9 apps. However you can sign up to join the Test Flight beta, I'll be randomly* selecting 1000-2000 people from the list to test when Test Flight is ready. You can also use the form to signup to be notified when Crystal is released. *If you were in the first 500 on the list, you're guaranteed a spot!

]]>Crystal BenchmarksAppsDean MurphyFri, 21 Aug 2015 23:59:03 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/8/22/crystal-benchmarks50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:55d7afd8e4b07982ba495145Update 25/8: I suck at math - I originally posted that pages loaded 74% faster. They actually load 3.9x faster - and the time to load is reduced by 74%. I've edited the below post to reflect this.

2 months ago I wrote about what I accomplished in an hour with Safari Content Blocker. What started off as a one page experiment has since evolved into a full product I've worked non-stop on over the past 60 days. I thought it would be a good idea to revisit my original post with Crystal, to show how different the mobile web will be with content blockers.

10 Websites

For this experiment, I have picked 10 pages from different news websites - Some I use regularly, some I don't. The metrics I'm monitoring is page size (in MB) and load time (in Seconds). 10 pages is far from a good sample size for the web, I know, but the web is a big place, and my time to benchmark is limited.

Ability to report sites that are still showing ads, annoyances or have lost functionality.

The next task on my list is mainly focused around the design of the app and promotional materials needed for its launch. I am very confident I will be able to have the app ready for sale when iOS 9 ships later this Autumn.

Beta Access

First of all, thank you to everyone who has requested to be a beta tester, I have nearly 600 people on my list waiting to get access, which is growing every day. At the moment, I am waiting for Apple to allow iOS 9 betas on its TestFlight service, which will allow me to have upto 1000 testers. As soon as that is functional, I am ready to drop the beta to everyone on the list.

There is still room to join the beta access - see form below!

Pre-Beta Access

During this week I launched Crystal pre-beta to 20 people using Fabric. Using this method of distribution limits me to how many people I can distribute to as I can only register a limited amount of test devices on my Apple developer account. I do plan to add more people every few days, keep your eyes pealed for an email from myself.

I've already picked up on a few bugs during the pre-beta access, mostly to do with code-signing, so when I can do a wider public beta, it'll be a lot more stable!

Otherwise, I've had some very positive feedback. I've heard that web-browsing is a lot faster with it switched on along with a lot less annoyances on webpages.

If you haven't already signed up for beta access, or would just like to be notified when its ready for download, feel free to use the form below to do so.

Dean.

Name/Alias *Email Address *
Would you like to beta test Crystal? *
iOS 9 Developer or Public beta is required to test Crystal - I am unable to provide access to iOS 9 for testers.
Yes No
Thank you!

I will use the details you provide to send 2 emails - one to announce beta testing if you opt in, and another to announce the release of the app later in the year, before disposing of your email address.

If you would like to follow along with my progress, the best place is to follow me on twitter, @CraftyDeano, however for any major updates, I will post them here in the blog.

]]>Site Stats - Referrer by Search EngineStatisticsDean MurphyTue, 21 Jul 2015 21:56:27 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/7/21/site-stats-referrer-by-search-engine50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:55aebd2ee4b030881ca7b3c3Just a quick post - After checking my referrers for the month, I was pleasantly surprised to see DuckDuckGo, my search engine of choice, ranked as high as it was compared to other search engines. It goes without saying that my site has such a tiny sample size, so not really representative of the wider web.

Crystal started as a little experiment to see how effective the content blocker built into iOS 9 could be. I wrote up my findings in a previous post and was overwhelmed when I saw it mentioned in sites I admire so much, such as Daring Fireball, The Loop and iMore. The topic of content blocking as a whole has since been picked up by major news sites such as The Guardian, The Wall St Journal & The Verge... Would it be big headed of me to think that this all sparked from my original post?

Anyway, after thinking long and hard, I've decided to make a content blocker for iOS 9 with the goal of making web browsing with the iPhone & iPad a great experience again, by blocking 3rd party tracking scripts that slow down websites along with giant adverts that take away valuable screen space.

So far, I do have a working prototype that works great for the majority of websites I've tested, but the app is far from finished, as it's currently in an Alpha state and I have a number of features planned that have yet to be implemented. I'll talk more about them in a later post.

I hope to release a public beta version shortly after Apple allow iOS 9 Apps to be deployed by Test Flight, however there is no date on when this will be available at the moment.

If you would like to register interest in beta testing or the general release of the app, please fill out the form below.

Name/Alias *Email Address *
Would you like to beta test Crystal? *
iOS 9 Developer or Public beta is required to test Crystal - I am unable to provide access to iOS 9 for testers.
Yes No

Thank you 😊

I will use the details you provide to send 2 emails - one to announce beta testing if you opt in, and another to announce the release of the app later in the year, before disposing of your email address.

If you would like to follow along with my progress, the best place is to follow me on twitter, @CraftyDeano, however for any major updates, I will post them here in the blog.

If you have any questions, as always, don't hesitate to get in touch.

]]>Recreating the new iTunes App IconDesignDean MurphyWed, 01 Jul 2015 20:27:30 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/7/1/recreating-the-new-itunes-app-icon50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:55944702e4b018e59d27e739A new version of iTunes was released yesterday with the launch of Apple Music, Apple's new music streaming service.

I loved the new icon design on the iTunes Mac App, especially the colourful gradient, so I took an attempt to recreate it within Sketch.

Here is the result.

It's not 100% accurate as I couldn't get some of the colours to match exact, but its pretty darn close. Recreating this icon has taught me a little about layering gradients, which is a technique I haven't really used heavily in the past.

]]>An hour with Safari Content Blocker in iOS 9Dean MurphyThu, 25 Jun 2015 00:33:47 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/6/24/an-hour-with-safari-content-blocker-in-ios-950562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:558b2d27e4b0d8787dde03ccI took a little time out today to watch WWDC Session 511 to learn about how Safari Content Blocking will work in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. After an hour, I had a little concept app running. I wont really explain the technical details of how the extensions work or how to create them, that is better done by watching the WWDC Session video directly, but I will say its frightfully easy and the code I used for the blocker detailed below is at the bottom of this page.

Ok, so the website I decided to try "fixing", is one that I see linked often, iMore. Let me start this by saying I really like the content that iMore provide and enjoy the personas of their staff on their many podcasts (Debug is one of my favourites!), but I hate the experience of their mobile website as it has several ad's by many different providers, all tracking me across all different sites. They have super tiny 'close' buttons that are near impossible to hit, they follow you as you scroll and there is a slow loading full page interstitial that loads on every page refresh. Urgh! Anyway...

Looks

Here is a screenshot of before & after the content blocker has run.

I don't know about you, but I think this website looks a lot more better now. The content I want to see is there in front of me, uninterrupted and free of clutter. (note: I dismissed the App Store banner at the top and couldn't get it to reappear for the second screenshot).

Performance

With no content blocked, there are 38 3rd party scripts (scripts not hosted on the host domain) running when the homepage is opened, which takes a total of 11 seconds. Some of these scripts are hosted by companies I know, Google, Amazon, Twitter and lots from companies I don't know. Most of which I assume are used to display adverts or track my activity, as the network activity was still active after a minute of leaving the page dormant. I decided to turn them all off all 3rd party scripts and see what would happen.

After turning off all 3rd party scripts, the homepage took 2 seconds to load, down from 11 seconds. Also, the network activity stopped as soon as the page loaded so it should be less strain on the battery.

I later blocked the CSS div's reserved for ad space and for the rotating carousel at the top as one of the scripts i blocked broke the functionality and I didn't really like it enough to fix it, for details, see the copy of my JSON below.

Would I block content?

Now, this was fun little project to mess around with, but it does give me a moral dilemma. Do I care more about my privacy, time, device battery life & data usage or do I care more about the content creators of sites I visit to be able to monetise effectively and ultimately keep creating content?

]]>Media IconsDesignDean MurphyFri, 08 May 2015 02:36:59 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2015/5/8/some-free-icons50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:554c1580e4b0ff0eff6e7992Recently I've been trying to improve my design skills (or lack of thereof!). I decided to redesign the basic media controls found in most music apps in Sketch.

I have no real use for these icons, so I've decided to release them as a pack for free. They are fully editable vectors and free to use for personal or commercial projects. Hopefully in the coming months I'll create some more icons to put there.

]]>designcode.io - Learn iOS Design & XcodeAppsDean MurphyMon, 11 Aug 2014 05:27:06 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2014/8/10/designcodeio-learn-ios-design-xcode50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:53e7a2fee4b0fb1fc62bf1ceDesign+Code is an online course, delivered through text and video, designed to teach you how to create an app from scratch. From design through to mock ups, prototyping and creation of a functional app.

As someone who enjoys digital design but finds it a natural struggle, it was very empowering to follow along the tutorials in Sketch and see a basic prototype on my phone. When it comes to code, the author, Meng To, does a great job of explaining just enough of the Swift language to get you comfortable to understand what is happening while you follow along. It's also great to see how Meng uses Xcode Storyboards to do quick prototypes for apps without any code. It's so simple, obvious once you see it done, but it had never occurred to me to do it.

There is also a great community aspect that comes with this course. Meng sends out a weekly newsletter of curated links relating to app creation & design, and there is a Facebook group dedicated to this course, who I have found are very helpful in answering questions and helping each-other out with different aspects of the course and app creation in general.

Design+Code is a unique way of teaching, and to me an effective one. Be sure to check it out at designcode.io.

Following on from my last post about my Dock Icons, here is what I keep up in my toolbar.

CopyClip - I copy & paste text all the time, so I find CopyClip absolutely essential to keep a history of my pasteboard.

QuickRes - QuickRes allows you to quickly change screen resolutions with either a click of the toolbar, or a keyboard shortcut. With previous devices I have always used the default resolution. Since getting the Retina Display Macbook I have found myself wanting to toggle resolutions depending on what task I’m doing. Some times I could use extra real estate so I use 1680x1050, the rest of the time, I use the default 1280x800. The maximum resolution is 3360x2100, a little to extreme for me!

iStat Menus - I have this setup to show 4 key metrics: Network Activity, CPU Usage, Memory Pressure & Disk Space. At a glance, I can get a good visual representation of what my computer is doing along with what applications are causing any unexpected usage.

Fantastical - With Fantastical I’m one keyboard shortcut away to adding a new calendar appointment, or seeing my current schedule. Also the toolbar icon is a nice minimal way to check the current date.

BackBlaze (not pictured) - My favorite cloud backup service. I haven’t setup BackBlaze backups yet on this machine yet, as I am still in the process of migrating over from my old Macbook. Once that is complete, I’ll setup BackBlaze to periodically backup my data remotely.

]]>My OS X Setup - The DockAppsDean MurphyFri, 08 Aug 2014 00:44:27 +0000http://murphyapps.co/blog/2014/8/8/my-os-x-setup50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:53e40f7fe4b027b8a4615a93My favourite part of setting up a new computer is installing applications. It's a great opportunity to revaluate what applications you currently use, and try out alternatives.

The Dock is a great place to start, as that is where my most used applications live.

iTunes - Surprise surprise, I use this for music & movies. I don't store much locally, as most of my music streamed via iTunes Match. Also there are countless movies that I have acquired over the years from iTunes.

iBooks - I've only just started using iBooks on the Mac, mainly for reading documentation, such as The Swift Programming Language. I still don't enjoy reading novels from a laptop, so I stick to my iPad for that.

Safari - My favourite way to browse the web. I love that Keychain creates, saves and syncs unique passwords for me across the web straight to my mobile devices. More recently, I have ditched my regular RSS reader and Instapaper to make use of Safari's Shared Links and Reading List. So far, it is working well. I especially like seeing links from the people I follow on Twitter show up in-between my RSS items.Note: RSS Subscription are only available in OS X Yosemite & iOS 8 versions of Safari

Sketch - I've always used Adobe's creative suite's for graphic design, but I've never loved using it. I am trying to steer clear of Adobe's software as I've found its very bloated for my simple needs, occasionally buggy, expensive with subscriptions... Basicallly, I don't find myself to be the market Adobe are trying to target. Enter Sketch. A beautiful, lightweight design tool made from the ground up for Mac. It also has an iOS app called Sketch Mirror, which allows you to beam the workspace you are currently working on to an iOS device, great for when working with UI mockups.

Xcode - If you don't know that Xcode is, chances are you don't need to know, but for the curious, its a tool that Apple releases that allow developers to create rich applications for OS X & iOS. I am currently working with the latest beta, getting deep into the new programming language that Apple released at WWDC earlier this year. My favourite new feature has to be Playgrounds. It is just so fun to use when prototyping segments of code, mainly due to the real time feedback it gives you as you write.

Home Folder - Ok, so not an application, but it allows me to instantly look at the root of my home folder.

Trash Can - Such a pretty icon in Yosemite, don't you think?

Currently Missing: I have yet to settle on a writing application for OS X and iOS. Writer.Pro was my previous favourite, but I am going to do a little research and look for an alternative. A great photo management application is also missing. Over the years I have amassed just over 150gb of photographs, which need a home. I have decided against my previous tool, Lightroom, due to my Adobe boycott, although the alternatives are not much better. Apple's very own iPhoto and Aperture has been discontinued and are due to be replaced by iCloud Photo Library, which I think I will transfer to in future, although there is no OS X app for it yet.

Recently it has started showing its age in terms of performance and stability. It's no surprise, as it has had heavy use of photo editing, music recording, application development, graphic design, countless hours of movies, music and netflix streamed over many years... It needs a break!

I've decided to upgrade to the baseline Mid-2014 13" Macbook Pro with Retina Display (such a mouthful!). I won't do a full on review, as that has been done better and more in-depth elsewhere. What I will offer though is some first impressions on the differences I've noticed compared to 6 year old predecessor.

Speed: Everything is just so fast and responsive. I previously fitted an SSD into my old machine, which brought the boot time to around 25 seconds. This new MacBook turns on from a cold boot in under 10 seconds. Great for when I just want to get to work!

Sound: Well, there isn't any. The fan is whisper quiet thanks to the asymmetrical blades. Even under a few matches in Team Fortress 2, it didn't make much audible noise.

Sight: I have a love/hate relationship with the Retina Display. The amount of detail shown is incredible. The typography looks beautiful, icons shine, and Yosemite renders everything perfectly. However, after switching back to my old MacBook, everything on the screen looks slightly fuzzy due to the lower resolution. The Retina Display is amazing when you are using it, and sucky when you're not.

That's all I wanted to touch on in this post, although I will give a last minute mention to the weight, dimensions & battery life, it feels light but sturdy and apparently can last for around 9 hours on a single charge which I have yet to test but have no doubts it will.

]]>Number Tap on the App Story PodcastAppsDean MurphyFri, 06 Jun 2014 00:00:38 +0000http://www.appstorypodcast.com/apps/number-tap50562b2ee4b02b42cb307607:50562b2ee4b02b42cb307615:539102d4e4b0742901b84723This week I was invited to the App Story Podcast to discuss my experiences with Number Tap. Give it a listen if you want to hear about how the app came into fruition.

If you are not already subscribed to App Story Podcast, shame on you! It's a great show for app fans & mobile developers and has quickly became one of my favorite podcasts to listen to.

Most apps ask at the wrong time, they'll prompt users after x number of launches. For example, today I opened Mailbox to check my mail, and boom up pops a "rate this app" dialog. Honestly, I just wanted to check my mail, and had I been a different type of user, I may have said sure I'll rate your app… headed to the app store and left a scathing 1 star review.- DanCounsell.com

Asking for a review on the App Store shouldn't be a sin, but most developers approach it wrong. Dan has highlighted some great effective ways to prompt dedicated users to rate or review your app.